


When Time is New

by ladyfriday



Category: Korean Drama, 응답하라 1988 | Answer Me 1988
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-22
Updated: 2016-01-22
Packaged: 2018-05-15 12:57:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5786092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyfriday/pseuds/ladyfriday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the nights she’s set to come home, Taek falls asleep with his pager clutched in his fist, waking as soon as it buzzes, the airport’s familiar number flashing across the screen. It doesn’t matter what the hour is. It doesn’t matter if it’s near dawn or still dark. Taek pulls on pants and a sweater, shoves his feet into his shoes and drives to where she is, drinking coffee when the car stalls on red lights. </p><p>This is their compromise: Taek doesn’t wait at the airport for her flight to land, and Deok Sun calls him as soon as it does. </p><p> </p><p>  <i>Or; Deok Sun works odd hours and Taek finds a way to see her more often.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	When Time is New

**Author's Note:**

> This is a drabble/one-short inspired by the anonymous prompt: "blanket". It got a little longer than I anticipated, mostly because I don't know how to keep things simple. Oops. 
> 
> Title from the Cyndi Lauper song All Through the Night covered by Sleeping at Last!

Most days, Deok Sun doesn’t come home.

It’s a product of her chosen profession, and he knows there’s nothing to be done about it. Nor would he want her to. She loves being a flight attendant as much as he loves baduk, and he’s deliriously happy for her. Sung Deok Sun deserves it, more than anyone he knows.

She has spent so much time midair now, he thinks the ground has become a stranger to her. It’s in the way she’s almost permanently jet lagged, never staying on earth long enough to straighten out her nights and days.

“Walking feels strange sometimes,” she tells him once, swallowing a yawn. It’s her first real day off this month, and she’s leaning against his bookshelf with his blanket wrapped around her legs. Between now and the beginning, when they were children, she’s done this half a million times. But now he lies with his head in her lap, her fingers idly stroking his hair. Taek strains to keep his eyes open, not wanting to lose any of this precious time.

“I guess I’m just used to the plane’s vibrations.” Her voice is louder than usual, her ears more accustomed to the constant whirring of airplane jets than the Sunday afternoon hush in Ssangmun-dong.

“Should I carry you, again? When you want to go somewhere, I mean.” he asks her, and from the way her fingers pause, he knows they’re remembering the same thing. Of the boys’ high school security guard catching them alone on the soccer field after Sun Woo and Jung Hwan had taken Dong Ryong to the hospital. Taek scooping her up in his arms and running like he’d never run before. His arms had ached afterward, but it wasn’t the kind of pain that _hurt._

He’d remembered it often, in the years that followed.

“Forget it,” she traces a line along his forehead, “You’ll hurt your back.”

“I won’t,” he tells her firmly, “I can do at least that much. You’re not even heavy.”

She laughs, and he pulls himself up, turning so he’s facing her. She has wiped off her makeup, but there’s still a faint redness on her lips. He doesn’t know who moves first, just that his fingers tangle in her hair, her lips move over his, soft and tasting vaguely of artificial watermelon.

This is them now. This room hasn’t changed, books still line its shelves, his baduk board sits on the other side of the room, black and white stones patterning the surface. In this room that’s filled to the brim with their memories, Taek kisses Deok Sun.

The room may not have changed, but he’s no longer a boy. And he’s allowed to do this as much as he wants.

 

 

On the nights she’s set to come home, Taek falls asleep with his pager clutched in his fist, waking as soon as it buzzes, the airport’s familiar number flashing across the screen. It doesn’t matter what the hour is. It doesn’t matter if it’s near dawn or still dark. Taek pulls on pants and a sweater, shoves his feet into his shoes and drives to where she is, drinking coffee when the car stalls on red lights.

This is their compromise: Taek doesn’t wait at the airport for her flight to land, and Deok Sun calls him as soon as it does.

She’s waiting on the steps of her friend’s apartment building, and gets up as soon as she sees his car. Her pressed black uniform has been traded for a pair of jeans and a checkered sweatshirt, but her hair still pulled tightly away from her face. The car lurches to a stop as he presses his foot to the break, Deok Sun pulls the door open and ducks inside.

The car remains stalled as she leans over and hugs him. Taek leans forward and wraps his arms around her waist, the gearshift digging into his stomach. The side of her face is icy where it touches his, and he’s fairly certain her fingers are like little blocks of ice. It isn’t the most comfortable of positions, but holding her is his favourite thing to do. So like most things in their relationship, they find the middle ground.

“It’s cold,” he murmurs, “You should’ve waited inside.”

“I’m fine,” she tells him, her voice heavy with fatigue, “The fresh air was nice.”

“Work wasn’t hard?”

“Nope,” she tightens her hold on him, “What about you? How many pills did you take today?”

“Just the vitamins,” Taek tells her, and he can feel her smile, her chin poking into his shoulder.

“Good,” she pulls back and looks at him, “Keep taking those vitamins, okay?”

“Okay,” he rubs the pad of his thumb over her dark circles that she hides with the makeup, “You should go and sleep. Your next flight is in ten hours.”

“If you’re not going to stay, why did you come all the way over here?” she grumbles, straining to keep her eyes open, “I should just stop paging—”

“Don’t even think about it,” he says sternly, “If you don’t page me, then I’m just going to wait at the airport.”

The corner of her mouth turns up, as Deok Sun gives him a half-smile. “You’re getting better at this.”

“Of course I am,” he mutters, “I get a lot of practice thanks to a certain someone. Now go upstairs and sleep!”

“Fine, fine,” she sighs, then leans forward for a kiss. He’s always ready and willing to oblige, and everything is silent for the next few moments. This time, he’s the first to pull back.

“Now go,” he tells her, “Sleep well.”

“Okay,” she says softly, “You too.”

She steps out of the car and shuts the door behind her.

“Call me when you wake up. I’m going to be home all day today.”

She smiles at him. “Yeah, okay.”

They have a little competition, Deok Sun standing on the steps waiting for him to leave first, Taek insisting on watching her go upstairs. She wins in the end; a car pulls up behind him, and after a few loud honks, Taek’s forced to leave. He waves to her, and she blows him a kiss.

He smiles the entire way home.

 

 

Like most things are, it’s Dong Ryong’s idea.

Taek leaves his bank book on his desk when he goes to the bathroom, and when he comes back, Sun Woo and Dong Ryong are staring at it with their mouths wide open.

“Hey Master Choi,” Dong Ryong says slowly, “You were this rich?”

Taek shrugs. “It’s just money.”

He’s been making money for what feels like forever, and he’s never had cause to do much with it. There’s Deok Sun, but she earns money of her own, and most of the time their dates are to the movies or concerts she wants to see.

“So you’re just going to let it collect dust?” Dong Ryong asks incredulously, “Do something with it, jashik-ah! Invest it or buy a thousand mink coats…”

“At the very least buy yourself a house!” adds Sun Woo, “Even if you don’t live in it, you can rent it out!

Taek shrugs off his friends’ concern, and they end up ordering chicken and watching Dirty Dancing for the tenth time. But the idea sticks in his mind. _A place of his own._

The more he thinks about it, the more sense it makes. He spends hours at the baduk club, but it isn’t as if he can’t practice at home. If he has an apartment close to the airport, he’ll at the very least get to see more of Deok Sun. And they’ll need a place of their own, one day. Taek presses his face against his pillow. 

The mere thought of marrying her someday soon is enough to make him grin like a fool.

Appa tells him it’s a great idea, and the next thing Taek knows, he’s making an appointment with the realtor who found them their current home. But it’s harder than he thought it would be. He leaves with a stack of papers advertising different apartments, and he has no idea where to start.

“I’m looking at apartments,” he tells Deok Sun on her next day off, “Which one do you like?”

She looks startled for a moment, before a slow smile overtakes her face. “You need to see them to decide.”

They pull out their schedules and make appointments for house tours. Their first two are the day after, and neither one is right.

“They’re nice,” Deok Sun tells the realtor Ahjusshi who’d been showing them around Daechi-dong, “But they seem a little pricey for the size.”

They walk through doors of the sixth apartment, in a Sangam-dong high rise, and Deok Sun’s face lights up. She pulls him by the hand, dragging him through the three bedrooms, the kitchen, the bathrooms, the living room. It has heated floors and shiny kitchen appliances, with windows that stretch across the walls. It’s evening now, but Taek’s sure there’ll be a lot of sunlight come morning.

“Taek-ah, look at the kitchen,” Deok Sun tells him, the smile never leaving her face, “And the closet! You’ll need to buy more clothes!”

“If it’s too big for a single man, there’s a few more in this neighbourhood you can look at,” says the realtor Ahjusshi.

Taek shakes his head. “It’s perfect. Where do I need to sign?”

A few weeks later, he’s a proud homeowner. He doesn’t plan on moving right away; with Sun Woo having left recently, he doesn’t know if it would be right for him to go when he hasn’t yet married Deok Sun. But at the very least, he wants to take some of his stuff there.

Proof, he supposes. That he’s this close to the life he thought he couldn’t have for six years.

“You don’t have to move out,” Ahjumma reminds him as he, looking teary eyed. “You aren’t married yet.”

Appa puts a hand on her shoulder, and they share a look. A beat passes, then Ahjumma disappears. A moment later, she comes back with a silk wrapped bundle in her arms.

“Here,” she tells him, setting it beside him, “If you’re going to spend the night at that place, you’ll need blankets.”

He’s taken aback for a second, running his fingers over the silken fabric. The one he uses now is soft and weathered from years of use. He could get a new one, but it keeping it had always been a choice. Taek would fall asleep, wishing he could dream a kiss once more. There’s no need to dream of that anymore, and Taek wonders what memories these new blankets will hold.

Appa helps him load his stuff into the car—some clothes, a baduk board and matching stones, a few pictures, his kettle, two mugs and two plates. He has only just laid out his blankets and baduk board, when Deok Sun pages him. It’s a quarter to ten and she has just landed.

Her colleague drops her off, and it’s his turn to wait downstairs for her. She steps out of the car and he jogs down the stairs, grabbing her carry-on before she can. They walk inside, hand in hand, and when they’re in front of the apartment he gives her the key.

“You do it. I did it once already.”

The key slides in easily, and Taek is so busy watching her smile, he nearly leaves her carry-on in the hallway.

“I love this place,” she sighs wandering through the living room to the kitchen, “Even with nothing in it, it’s perfect.”

“It was a good choice, huh?”

“Of course it was,” she tells him, “It was our choice.”

All the rooms are empty save for the master bedroom, where he has spread out the blankets and set up his baduk board. She runs towards the makeshift bed and lays down.

“You turned on the heated floors?” she asks him. When he nods, she sighs contentedly. “This is the best.”

“You’ll…” Taek says slowly, “You’re going to sleep here tonight, right?”

“At this point,” she yawns, pulling the blankets to her shoulders, “I don’t think it makes a difference, whether or not I sleep here.”

“Why?” he asks, needing to hear her say it.

She grins at him. “My future husband doesn’t care if I spend the night here. He can be very modern, sometimes.”

He tries not to be obvious about it. He does. He bites the inside of his cheek, his lips, but there isn’t much he can do to keep his grin under control.

“I do care,” he tells her, “I want you to stay here, in this house.”

“With you?” she says, looking at him with hooded eyes.

“Of course,” he says, crossing his arms, “Who else?”

“Come here,” she says pulling back a corner of the blanket. “Come here, Choi Taek.”

The blankets are soft, the bed is warmer, and warmest of all is Sung Deok Sun. Taek pulls her close, and presses a kiss to her forehead. He’s probably never going to get used to this. This reality where she comes home to him after work. Where he gets to hold her while she sleeps.

And he’s absolutely okay with that.

 

\---

  
_Until it ends, there is no end._

_Keep with me forward all through the night._

_Keep with me all through the night._

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! <33
> 
> If there's anything specific you'd like me to write, please don't hesitate to drop me an ask on [tumblr](http://evil-writer.tumblr.com/ask/)! You can also come cry with me on [twitter](https://www.twitter.com/ladyfriday87) if that's more your thing~


End file.
